Introduction

Introduction
:What is a construction material
The material used for construction or the materials used to produce other materials which may
.be used in construction is called construction material

:Building material
Is any material which is used for a construction purpose. Many naturally occurring substances,
such as clay, sand, wood and rocks, even twigs and leaves have been used to construct
buildings. Apart from naturally occurring materials, many man-made products are in use, some
more and some less synthetic. The manufacture of building materials is an established industry
in many countries and the use of these materials is typically segmented into specific specialty
.trades, such as carpentry, plumbing, roofing and insulation work
It is important that these materials are identical to the work requirements and specifications for
the achievement and quality in the piece
:Materials Management
Materials management is an important element in project planning and control. Materials
represent a major expense in construction, so minimizing procurement or purchase costs
presents important opportunities for reducing costs. Poor materials management can also
result in large and avoidable costs during construction. First, if materials are purchased early,
capital may be tied up and interest charges incurred on the excess inventory of materials. Even
worse, materials may deteriorate during storage or be stolen unless special care is taken. For
example, electrical equipment often must be stored in waterproof locations. Second, delays
and extra expenses may be incurred if materials required for particular activities are not
available. Accordingly, insuring a timely flow of material is an important concern of project
.managers
Materials management is not just a concern during the monitoring stage in which construction
is taking place. Decisions about material procurement may also be required during the initial
planning and scheduling stages. For example, activities can be inserted in the project schedule
to represent purchasing of major items such as elevators for buildings. The availability of
materials may greatly influence the schedule in projects with a fast track or very tight time
schedule: sufficient time for obtaining the necessary materials must be allowed. In some case,
.more expensive suppliers or shippers may be employed to save time
Materials management is also a problem at the organization level if central purchasing and
inventory control is used for standard items. In this case, the various projects undertaken by
the organization would present requests to the central purchasing group. In turn, this group
would maintain inventories of standard items to reduce the delay in providing material or to
obtain lower costs due to bulk purchasing. This organizational materials management problem
is analogous to inventory control in any organization facing continuing demand for particular
.items
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Materials ordering problems lend themselves particularly well to computer based systems to
insure the consistency and completeness of the purchasing process. In the manufacturing
realm, the use of automated materials requirements planning systems is common. In these
systems, the master production schedule, inventory records and product component lists are
merged to determine what items must be ordered, when they should be ordered, and how
much of each item should be ordered in each time period. The heart of these calculations is
simple arithmetic: the projected demand for each material item in each period is subtracted
from the available inventory. When the inventory becomes too low, a new order is
recommended. For items that are non-standard or not kept in inventory, the calculation is even
simpler since no inventory must be considered. With a materials requirement system, much of
the detailed record keeping is automated and project managers are alerted to purchasing
.requirements
:Material Procurement and Delivery
The main sources of information for feedback and control of material procurement are
requisitions, bids and quotations, purchase orders and subcontracts, shipping and receiving
documents, and invoices. For projects involving the large scale use of critical resources, the
owner may initiate the procurement procedure even before the selection of a constructor in
order to avoid shortages and delays. Under ordinary circumstances, the constructor will handle
the procurement to shop for materials with the best price/performance characteristics
specified by the designer. Some overlapping and rehandling in the procurement process is
unavoidable, but it should be minimized to insure timely delivery of the materials in good
.condition
The materials for delivery to and from a construction site may be broadly classified as : (1) bulk
materials, (2) standard off-the-shelf materials, and (3) fabricated members or units. The process
of delivery, including transportation, field storage and installation will be different for these
classes of materials. The equipment needed to handle and haul these classes of materials will
.also be different
Bulk materials refer to materials in their natural or semi-processed state, such as earthwork to
be excavated, wet concrete mix, etc. which are usually encountered in large quantities in
construction. Some bulk materials such as earthwork or gravels may be measured in bank (solid
in situ) volume. Obviously, the quantities of materials for delivery may be substantially different
when expressed in different measures of volume, depending on the characteristics of such
.materials
Standard piping and valves are typical examples of standard off-the-shelf materials which are
used extensively in the chemical processing industry. Since standard off-the-shelf materials can
.easily be stockpiled, the delivery process is relatively simple
Fabricated members such as steel beams and columns for buildings are pre-processed in a shop
to simplify the field erection procedures. Welded or bolted connections are attached partially to
the members which are cut to precise dimensions for adequate fit. Similarly, steel tanks and
pressure vessels are often partly or fully fabricated before shipping to the field. In general, if the
work can be done in the shop where working conditions can better be controlled, it is advisable

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to do so, provided that the fabricated members or units can be shipped to the construction site
.in a satisfactory manner at a reasonable cost
As a further step to simplify field assembly, an entire wall panel including plumbing and wiring
or even an entire room may be prefabricated and shipped to the site. While the field labor is
greatly reduced in such cases, "materials" for delivery are in fact manufactured products with
value added by another type of labor. With modern means of transporting construction
materials and fabricated units, the percentages of costs on direct labor and materials for a
.project may change if more prefabricated units are introduced in the construction process
In the construction industry, materials used by a specific craft are generally handled by
craftsmen, not by general labor. Thus, electricians handle electrical materials, pipefitters handle
pipe materials, etc. This multiple handling diverts scarce skilled craftsmen and contractor
supervision into activities which do not directly contribute to construction. Since contractors
are not normally in the freight business, they do not perform the tasks of freight delivery
efficiently. All these factors tend to exacerbate the problems of freight delivery for very large
.projects